Casey Jolley

Casey joined the NMBL team after serving as the Director of Visitor Services and New Business Development at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, she has worked with her events team to book new corporate and private events resulting in a 50% increase in earned income revenue.  Most recently, she led a team to welcome back visitors to the Freedom Center in a safe and effective manner while increasing membership renewal rates. She works to engage the public as they learn about the history of our country through the lens of freedom. Previously, she has taken a leadership role with the Gateway Arch Park Foundation managing public and private events on the Gateway Arch grounds as well as in city parks.  She worked to create welcoming events for the St. Louis community to attend and experience all that downtown St. Louis has to offer. Events such as yoga and bootcamp that are part of the Health and initiative in Kiener Plaza saw large growth during her time. It is helpful that she has a passion for health and wellness as a fitness coach herself, teaching kickboxing, cycling, and yoga after work.  

Prior to that, she was the Director of Earned Income and Operations for the National Blues Museum from 2015 to 2018, helping to establish and open the museum in April 2016. She was a part of the team that created the brand strategy for the museum and the structure for the gift shop as part of the new museum.  Her crossover event with those two organizations, the National Blues Museum and the Gateway Arch Park Foundation, was a weekly live Blues music concert series in August on the riverfront called Blues at the Arch. The event created support for downtown businesses while bringing amazing live music with a historical context to a large diverse crowd. 

Casey’s work has led her to manage many different projects in the museum industry, from event development and donor relationships to more recently establishing protocols and safe visitor experience management techniques for COVID-19 procedures at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.